Isaiah 53:8 MT/LXX

From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Feb 05 1998 - 07:55:19 EST


The Ethiopian official (Acts 8:33) had problems understanding Isaiah 53:8 and
I don't blame him.

The *first clause* of Isaiah 53:8 in the MT seems unproblematic to my
untrained eye. The syntax seems balanced and straight forward. But the LXX
version quoted in Acts has a different syntactical structure and probably a
different meaning.

In the LXX we have:

EN THi TAPEIWSEI H KRISIS AUTOU HRQH

My best guess, having looked at a commentary or two is that
EN THi TAPEIWSEI is an adverbial modifier of HRQH, with H KRISIS being the
recipient of the action stated in the passive verb.

It seems that the MT is saying something quite different here. The subject of
the verb in the MT is the suffering servant. Both prepositional phrases being
adverbially related to the verb.

I am aware that there is more than one way to read this clause in the MT
(ignoring the LXX). Is there is anyway to resolve the differences between the
MT and LXX in this clause?

-- 
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062


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